Meet the Team

Audri Piper

Sales and Event Director

Audri Piper serves as the Sales and Event Director for The Barn at Raccoon Creek and has been a part of the team since The Barn was constructed. Audri really likes to focus on the little details that make an event come together. “Without the little details, you don’t have a big picture,” she says.

Prior to joining Raccoon Creek, she started her career in the hospitality industry at the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs. She says that was where she really fell in love with event and wedding planning. After that, Audri moved to Denver to finish school and worked at two other local wedding venues. The most fulfilling part of her job, she says, is that she gets to be a part of someone’s special day. Knowing that she contributed to his or her happiness makes all the hard work worth it.

Audri has lived in Denver for the past 6 years. She graduated from Metro State University with a degree in Hospitality and Tourism with a concentration in Event Management. In her spare time, she enjoys being outside hiking, camping, and biking. She also enjoys spending time with her animals — and she fosters greyhounds through CGA. Audri has no children, but she considers her dogs, Venice, Egypt, and Cleo, her babies.

“I can’t say enough about The Barn at Raccoon Creek, Audri and the staff. They out did themselves in a big way and made this day so special for my Daughter. The attention to detail and the friendly faces, making sure everyone and everything was taken care of. Whatever my Daughter needed they were there to assist. The Barn truly cares about the people and you can tell they love what they do. Again thank you Audri and the Barn for such a special day, our family truly appreciates what you have done and all of the vendors who participated are top notch. Our family truly needed this special day, it help heal us and it shows that there are happy endings even after tragedy. I just love you guys…”– Babette Canacari

“I am a wedding planner with Bello & Blue Events, and one of our couples recently had a wedding at Raccoon Creek. Audri and her team at Raccoon Creek were nothing but amazing to work with! It was incredibly smooth and flawless, Audri is great to work with very professional and knows what she’s doing. The rest of the staff was on hand to help with anything we needed and everyone did an amazing job! We would highly recommend this venue to any brides looking for a sweet country feel!”- Kate Dalton

Daniel E. Barrett

Executive Chef

Dan Barrett has worked in the field of culinary arts for 38 years, ranging from corporate hotels and resorts to family owned restaurants. He began cooking at the age of 15, realizing that cooking was his dream and passion. He continues that same passion for the job today. Dan has had the privilege of apprenticing and working beside some of Colorado’s best chefs. Working with the different chefs, he was able to enhance his skills and abilities and learn different styles of cooking. At the age of 24, Dan became a sous chef of one of the few 4-star restaurants in Denver. He then became banquet chef at the Radisson Hotel, featuring the largest banquet facility in Colorado at the time, serving up to 1,500 people. At the age of 27, Dan became executive chef at the Sheraton West in Lakewood, Colorado. He is one of the youngest chefs in their franchise history. Dan has always enjoyed doing weddings and special occasions, which give him the ability to showcase his talents such as garde manger and specialty dishes. He has taught many cooks the skills of the trade and has seen them go on to be chefs.
Below are a few highlights of Dan’s career before coming to Raccoon Creek:

As an Executive Chef, he has had the honor of cooking for Fleetwood Mac, Neil Young, Walter Matthau, Jack Lemmon, Tony Dorsett, and Vice President George H. W. Bush.

He apprenticed under German chef Claude Dillenhiemer.

He worked under Boston Chef of the Year Michael Legg.

He was Banquet Chef under De Cuisine president, Michael Campe.

He was the chef at a mountain resort, as well as at a family owned steak and seafood house in Estes Park.

He was Corporate Chef for Dadiotis Golf Enterprises, which is responsible for running three golf courses.

Dan has been with the Grant family for several seasons and finds the management to be his second family.

“THE FOOD: Unprovoked, we received so many compliments about the food. We had a lot of dietary preferences/allergies to work around, and the barn was extremely accommodating – essentially they did everything we asked for without a single problem”- Sandra Hovey

“Our guests had so much fun and everyone raved about the food. The plated meals turned out wonderful, thanks to the amazing Chef Dan!“- Stacie Perez

“Food was absolutely delicious. All of our guests were gushing about the venue and how good the food was”. – Skye Jacob

Ryleigh Groner

Lead Event Coordinator

Ryleigh Groner has served as the Event Assistant for The Barn at Raccoon Creek since May 2016. In December of 2016 she took over as Lead Event Coordinator. She meets and tours with couples and assists in all aspects of wedding planning. She is your go to for anything creative which sets her apart from the other coordinators as she has a very unique vision. Figuring out the tiny details and seeing everything come to fruition on the special day make her heart happy. Plus, she absolutely loves being surrounded by all that love!

Creative and detailed, Ryleigh started her wedding planning path 5 years ago by helping family and friends. Furthering her education, she started her Wedding Planning certificate through the NY Institute of Art & Design — she knew this was the career path for her.

Ryleigh has called Colorado home for the past 13 years but really feels like she is from all over the world because of the extensive moving and travel her family did while she was growing up — she’s been to 13 countries! She is an athlete who loves the outdoors. Her favorite place in the whole world is the beach, as she plans on one day living near one. In her spare time, Ryleigh enjoys creating art and crafts, and has a love for all things related to design and hand lettering.

“Ryleigh Groner, our event coordinator, was absolutely amazing. She was infinitely helpful and dedicated and quickly got back to me on my numerous last minute emails and unending questions. She simplified the wedding planning process and was a blast to work with. For all the work I put into the wedding, I feel like she put in double, working so hard to bring our vision to life, making it look easy by staying flexible and easygoing the entire time. We were so lucky to have her. In the days leading up to the wedding and on the wedding day, Ryleigh was phenomenal, really making it work with all the unexpected challenges, removing all the stress from the situation, and making everything flow even better than I had hoped!” – Sandra Hovey

Shyanne Ventura

Event Coordinator

Born and raised in Colorado, you can always find Shyanne outside with her dogs taking on new adventures and experiences. Shyanne has worked in the Event Industry at The Barn at Raccoon Creek for a little over two years now. She started off as a banquet server, then worked her way up to a banquet captain, and now is one of our coordinators! Shyanne has worked as a banquet server for over 100 weddings and by the end of the 2017 season, has coordinated 40 weddings and events. Being that she has both being a server and coordinator, has been a huge advantage because she can see through every little detail that goes into a wedding from every aspect. She has become the go-to person to buy nick nacks and fun new things for our offices in the bridal cottage. To say she loves shopping, is an understatement!

As far as her education goes, she graduated from Red Rocks Community College with an Associate’s Degree in Psychology Designation. She’s plans to eventually further her career in Psychology, but is not quite ready to leave the wedding industry, as this has become her passion! Shyanne says, “there is nothing better than witnessing a couple’s genuine love and then seeing it all come together”.

“The week before the wedding I had a lot of questions and Shyanne was fantastic about answering them all. At the rehearsal Shyanne took charge, helping us organize the processional and recessional. I didn’t have to lead or be in charge, which was great. On the day of, everything was where it needed to be, even all the details we didn’t think of like a card basket and a cake cutter. Shyanne was super helpful when we got there, making sure our mimosas were ready and that we had everything we need. With her help we got all the flowers where they needed to be and just had everything organized. Before I walked down the aisle she was so calm and kind, making a huge moment so memorable.”- Christa Kovach

Addi Kurronen

Event Coordinator

Addi was born and raised in Littleton, Colorado and grew up skiing and hiking all over the Rocky Mountains. She graduated from Chatfield Senior High School in 2013, and after graduation, she moved to Newport Beach, California. She wanted to experience life outside of Colorado, where she worked with her aunt doing art events at her studio in downtown Irvine, CA. Though beach living was quite exciting, Addi couldn’t help herself from coming home to the mountains. Shortly after returning to Colorado, she applied as a banquet server at Raccoon Creek and started right away. After her first wedding season, she was offered an office assistant position, worked hard and moved up very quickly to be a venue coordinator here at The Barn. Once back in Denver, she attended Metropolitan State University pursuing a degree in Event Management and will be graduating in fall of 2018. Her favorite part about working at The Barn is working with the other amazing coordinators, “they are such great people and we have all become great friends”. Addi says how rewarding it is to coordinate weddings, “seeing the pure joy and happiness throughout the night is incredible to me”.

“Addi and staff were awesome. Addi took over and didn’t miss a beat. She walked me through every little detail and helped me make decisions when I wasn’t sure what I wanted. All of her suggestions worked perfect and made our wedding even better. She was extremely helpful with our backup plan because rain was in the forecast for our wedding night and I was stressing about it. She made me feel so much better about our options and luckily we made it through the entire night without any rain”. – Tawny Vessey